


just refuel and keep going

by Linnea_Ancalime



Category: The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Blood, Blood Loss, Fluff, Gen, Jonny being Jonny, Other, POV Lyf, Post-The Bifrost Incident, Serious Injuries, and also a minimal bit of, because Marius may be neither a baron nor a doctor, but he does know basic first aid!, fae/faer pronouns for Lyf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28458540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linnea_Ancalime/pseuds/Linnea_Ancalime
Summary: Former Inspector Second Class Lyfrassir Edda only meant to stay on this planet long enough to refuel and get food. Fae was not expecting to have to run for faer life the second fae got off faer ship.Looking back on it, of course fae would meet a few of the Mechanisms in the midst of the fighting.
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville & Lyfrassir Edda & Marius von Raum, Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20
Collections: The Mechscord Winter Gift Exchange





	just refuel and keep going

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jay_the_bird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jay_the_bird/gifts).



> hi John, happy holidays! you said "moments of happiness in an otherwise violent world" so... ran with that vibe. hope you enjoy your gift :3
> 
> many, many thanks to [stry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/current521) and [Cymbeline](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllusionOfDeath) for beta-reading.

It was _really_ worth escaping the destruction of the Yggdrasil system only to get caught up in a fight three months later, Lyfrassir thinks bitterly as fae runs away from the carnage in the town plaza and into the side streets.

Fae keeps a tight grip on faer knife; faer other hand is pressed against faer forearm, where sharp wolflike teeth ripped into faer flesh, in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. Droplets of blood fall to the ground as fae runs.

Glancing over faer shoulder, fae counts three — four? Please let it be three — tall furry figures giving chase. Fae swears and speeds up as much as fae can. It's not enough: every time fae checks, the pursuers are slowly gaining on faer.

In the hopes of losing them, fae turns the first corner fae sees, then quickly turns another. Almost immediately, fae spots an open door; it sways ever so gently in the breeze, only barely hanging onto its hinges. Faer pursuers are nowhere in sight when fae slows down in front of it, so fae takes the chance and crosses the threshold.

Inside is a small room, with a rickety table and broken chairs in the centre, a shabby bed in the far left corner, and not much else besides. There's one small window on faer right, streetside; its single pane is broken, and it lets in just enough light to see that the floor is packed dirt.

Very aware of what may soon appear at faer back, fae rushes to the empty corner on faer immediate left, where fae can't be spotted from the street, and leans back against the wall with a sigh of relief.

Finally able to rest, Lyfrassir takes faer hand away from faer forearm, and grimaces. The fabric of faer sleeve sticks to faer skin. When fae peels it away, a few drops of blood roll down faer wrist. Another good shirt ruined, and fae doesn't even have enough universal credits left to justify spending them on new clothes.

Then fae nearly jumps out of faer skin as a head emerges from underneath the bed and greets faer, with a voice fae had (mostly) hoped never to hear _ever_ again.

"Good day, Inspector Lyf! What are you doing here?"

Lyfrassir groans in disbelief upon seeing _fucking_ Marius von Raum.

"I could ask you the same question," fae says, in the most annoyed tone of voice fae can muster with faer heart still hammering from the chase and the fright fae's just had. "Please stay hidden."

Marius opens his mouth to reply, but the conversation is cut short as one of Lyfrassir's pursuers barges into the house, closely followed by another. Behind them, the door finally gives up on life and clatters to the ground.

"Oh, but you should have said there'd be guests," Marius chides, extracting himself from his hiding place and pulling out a gun in one fluid motion. "Allow me."

He shoots the first wolf-person right between the eyes before Lyfrassir even moves, and is already holding the other by the neck — strangling them _and_ blocking the entrance with their body — by the time fae manages to unfreeze.

And it's a good thing that fae did, because fae sees another of faer pursuers — hopefully the last — squeeze in through the window, sniffing the air.

Fae throws faerself in-between Marius and the wolf-person, bending down to grab a broken chair leg on the way. They snarl in defiance and lunge, sending faer to the floor; jaws snap closed barely an inch from faer nose and clawed hands slam against the dirt on each side of faer head.

When the jaws open again, Lyfrassir does not hesitate. Fae wedges the chair leg in between their teeth, brings faer knife up, and slits faer attacker's throat.

Drenched in blood, breathing hard, still on high alert, fae sits up and tries to peer out the window. It's too high up for faer to really see anything, but fae really doesn't want to get up right now.

"Will there be more coming?" Marius asks, a warm presence to faer right.

Lyfrassir, still on high alert, startles and chokes on faer own spit; it's a long few seconds before fae can reply.

"No, no, I don't think so. If no others have shown up... Wasn't sure if there were three or four, but if..."

Fae takes Marius's offered hand. The movement when he pulls faer up is dizzying; losing faer train of thought, fae sways and collapses against him, hard. His arms instantly wrap around faer back, holding faer up.

Looking down, fae notices faer trousers are torn with claw marks. It's hard to tell, with all the blood on faer clothes, how much of it is faers; but running faer fingers over faer thigh, fae comes away with a _lot_ of fresh blood.

"Oh. Didn't feel that happen."

Speaking is too much effort right now. Faer mind goes blank.

* * *

The next thing Lyfrassir knows, fae is sat on the bed, propped up against the wall, and Marius is patching up faer thigh with quick, efficient moves.

"Back with us, Inspector Lyf? Good. Try to stay awake."

"Not an inspector anymore," Lyfrassir says.

Marius doesn't pay faer comment any mind, just ties off the bandages and gives them an experimental tug.

"Good, you can talk. Can you place a distress call for me while I clean up your arm? That bite looks nasty and I don't want to leave it to fester."

He fishes a device out of his jacket pocket and hands it over. Lyfrassir immediately recognises the make and model: it's a handheld communicator, technology the police had confiscated from the prisoners before they were put in jail. Fae had time to study it extensively before... Before. Fae doesn't want to think about it.

Fae knows how the communicator _ought_ to work and focuses on that instead; but in spite of faer best efforts, it refuses to scan for other devices.

"Sorry," fae says, handing it back to Marius when he's done bandaging faer arm. "Couldn't figure out how to make it connect."

"Huh. That's weird. Let me just..." He pushes a button and the back of the device falls off, only held back with one wire. " _Ah._ Well then. It's broken. There's your problem," he announces with a shrug.

"I can... see that."

Marius frowns, and Lyfrassir wonders what is going through his mind at the moment. Fae is saved from asking by another head peeking out from somewhere unexpected — a trapdoor in the ceiling this time — asking if this is where Marius has been "all this fucking time".

"Get down here and give me your comm," Marius demands, unfazed. "Mine's broken and the Inspector here is too wounded to move."

"Not an inspector anymore," Lyfrassir corrects again.

Fae is ignored by everyone in the room as — going by faer memories of the case files, this must be Jonny, with all the eyeliner and sharp teeth — jumps through the trapdoor, briefly landing upon the table; only briefly, because it breaks under his weight and he goes down with a crash and a yell.

"Well, sure as fuck hope they didn't need that," Jonny says, dusting himself. He comes closer to crouch in front of the bed, examining Lyfrassir with curious eyes. "Do I know you?"

"From pictures," Marius replies, making sure the bandages are secure. "That's Lyf."

Jonny gives a noncommittal grunt.

"Anyway, give me your comm," Marius repeats. "I have to place a distress call."

"Nah, don't think so," Jonny says, unclipping the device from his belt. "I'll do it."

Marius shrugs and sits down on the bed next to Lyfrassir. They both watch Jonny pace at the other end of the room while he waits for the call to connect.

"So, how'd you get here?" Marius asks, voice light.

Lyfrassir chews on faer tongue, wondering where to start and how much the strange space pirates already know. Fae settles on the safest answer fae can think of.

"On accident, mostly, I think."

"Well, obviously we knew about the Ratatosk Express and what was going to happen, but..." Marius's voice goes soft, in a way that gives Lyfrassir pause. "I— We didn't know if you managed to make it out before... You know. The whole _thing_."

"Yeah, I... I wouldn't have known I even _needed_ to get away if you all hadn't warned me, so... Thanks for that, I suppose."

"You're welcome, _Inspector_."

Lyfrassir sighs, and tries to tell faerself fae hadn't missed that voice after all.

"I'm no longer—"

"Who cares? Give us the juicy story," Jonny interrupts and throws himself onto the bed, earning a glare from Marius. His communicator is once again clipped to his belt. "We've got enough material to write a kickass story, but there's nothing quite like primary sources to get the little details. That... touch of authenticity, shall we say," he adds, wiggling his fingers.

Lyfrassir is beginning to believe that _maybe_ faer prisoners weren't the worst of the Mechanisms to have to deal with on the regular.

"My home system got destroyed. Then I fled. What more do you want?"

"Come on, that's not what I mean. You _know_ that's not what I mean. _How_ did you get away in time? Did you get to convince anyone _else_ they needed to get the fuck out of there? What did you have to leave behind? You know. The _details_. The juicy, _juicy_ details."

Jonny grins, revealing too-sharp teeth that make faer shudder.

"Jonny," Marius warns, and turns to Lyfrassir. "This isn't an interrogation. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. But I have to admit, I'm curious too."

Fae doesn't really want to answer Jonny, but fae can make an effort for Marius, who _did_ just save faer life no questions asked.

"Uh," fae begins, turning to Marius. "I got away in time because I had advance warning. Thanks to you. I didn't have time to tell anyone else because they were going to ask _questions_ and then I wasn't going to have any time to get away, so... Better me than no one at all."

Fae pointedly ignores Jonny's last question. In the months fae has spent away from home, fae has not dared to get attached to another soul for fear fae would have to leave them behind _again_ ; and if there's one thing fae does _not_ want to think much less talk about, it's the _everything_ that led faer here.

The silence stretches for a beat too long, until Jonny breaks it again.

"The ship anchored in the plaza. Was that yours?"

Taken aback by the sudden change of topic, Lyfrassir just barely manages a nod. Jonny sucks in air between his teeth.

"Well then, mate. Sorry to say it's not going anywhere else."

The first tendrils of panic begin to wrap around Lyfrassir's lungs.

"Did it-did it get damaged?"

"Uh, yeah? Mob brought it down, broke both the engines and half the left wing is just gone. Probably exploded," Jonny confirms with a shrug. "Happens."

"But..." The idea makes no sense to Lyfrassir. "But it has all the recordings... I couldn't bring much of anything with me, I thought, even if it's morbid, it's going to be the last anyone ever hears of any of them, they shouldn't be forgotten—"

"Okay, okay, slow down there. What in the everloving fuck are you talking about?"

Lyfrassir is too busy trying to get faer breathing under control to pay much attention to how rude Jonny is being.

"The recordings. There were all those distress calls from Yggdrasil — so many distress calls — while I was running away and I— I thought if I recorded them...”

Fae stops, because fae is very aware that fae is going to cry if fae forces another word out of faer mouth. It's the first time in _months_ that fae's being forced to _think_ , to really think, about what fae left behind; and it's a little more than fae can handle at the moment, still dizzy from blood loss and the shock of seeing familiar faces in such an unexpected place.

"Jonny, I think you'd better get out," Marius suggests. "Let Lyf calm down."

Jonny grimaces and rolls his eyes.

"Okay," he says, getting off the bed, and storms out of the house.

Marius awkwardly pats Lyfrassir's shoulder.

"I'm really sorry. Must have been a terrible time."

"Yeah, it was," fae says, voice trembling.

Needing the comfort from one of the only _three_ people from before that fae will _ever_ have a chance to see again, fae leans into Marius and rests faer head on his shoulder.

"Ah," Marius breathes. "Hey, maybe we can salvage your—"

" _Don't..._ say... another _word_ ," Lyfrassir threatens — or at least, tries to; the effect is very much undermined by faer sniffles.

Marius, wonder of wonders, actually shuts up and resorts to rubbing comforting circles on faer back.

They stay like that for a while, in companionable silence. Lyfrassir's breathing eventually slows down, and settles into the deep regularity of sleep.

* * *

Eons later, Jonny pops his head back in to announce, "Ship's here," and ducks back out just as quickly. He's definitely sulking.

Lyfrassir tries to stand, but fae's wounded and tired. Faer leg betrays faer and Marius has to catch faer again.

"I don't think I can walk."

"It's fine, I'll just carry you."

Marius doesn't wait for an answer before he lifts Lyfrassir off the ground. Fae almost protests, but has to admit that this is _much_ better than trying to walk on it, so fae does nothing in the end; just tightens faer grip around Marius's shoulders.

In the few seconds it takes for them to cross the room, Lyfrassir's thoughts fly all over the place.

Faer world was destroyed, faer ship was destroyed, and there's nothing familiar left, nothing except this. As much of a pain as Marius is, at least he is a _constant_ in this forever unfamiliar world; and maybe, just maybe, things will be better with him around.


End file.
